Rotating drum device for use with carbonizer system and process of use thereof

ABSTRACT

A rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system and process of use thereof are provided. The drum device has an augered feed line, a center feed line for accepting introduced waste material in fluid communication with the augered feed line, control valves for controlling the amount of waste material moving through the drum at any given discrete point in time, and a heating jacket encapsulating a circumference of an outer wall of the drum that provides indirect thermal heating to the drum. Internal angled vanes are disposed along an inner wall of the drum and move waste material progressively through the drum. Constituent waste material may be separated with a magnetic strip disposed along an inner wall of the drum. Rotation of the drum is driven by at least one external rotating drum drive motor that engages external threads disposed along the outer wall of the drum.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/332,706 filed May 6, 2016; the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention in general relates to a device for use with a carbonizer system; and inparticular to a rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system for transforming waste into useful co-products and a process of use thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Transforming waste from a hazard to an asset is a high global priority. The benefits of transforming waste materials are well known and include, but are not limited to, reduction in the stream of landfill-bound waste, and reduction in the amount of harmful chemicals and other pollutants that would otherwise be released into the environment. Waste-related chemicals and other waste-related pollutants not only pose a risk to the environment, but can also pose a significant risk to human health. Most common household materials, including paper, metals and glass can be transformed and recycled for re-use by industry, thus avoiding the landfill-bound waste stream. However, transforming and recycling less common non-household and industrial waste materials, such as medical waste, into useful co-products presents more complex challenges.

Medical and industrial waste can be infectious and/or contaminated. Infectious and/or contaminated waste includes items such as: cultures and stocks of microorganisms and biologicals; blood and blood products; pathological wastes; syringe needles; animal carcasses, body parts, bedding and related wastes; isolation wastes; any residue resulting from a spill cleanup; and any waste mixed with or contaminated by infectious and/or contaminated waste. Before infectious and/or contaminated waste can be disposed of or transformed and recycled into useful co-products, it must be sterilized. Traditional sterilization methods include: incineration; steam treatment or autoclaving; and infectious and/or contaminated liquid waste may be disposed of in approved sanitary sewers. These traditional sterilization methods have all met with limited success owing to continued pollution streams, batch processes with limited throughput, and escape of biohazardous materials from the waste handling stream. More recent sterilization methods that have been developed include microwave irradiation and use of various chemical washes. However, the aforementioned sterilization methods can be costly and limit the economic feasibility of transforming and recycling non-household, medical and industrial waste into useful co-products.

Current waste management technologies rely on incineration to dispose of carbonaceous waste with useable quantities of heat being generated while requiring scrubbers and other pollution controls to limit gaseous and particulate pollutants from entering the environment. Incomplete combustion associated with conventional incinerators and the complexities of operation while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements often results in waste, which would otherwise have value after being transformed and recycled into useful co-products, instead being sent to a landfill or incinerated off-site at considerable expense—both economic and environmental. As medical waste often contains appreciable quantities of synthetic polymers including polyvinyl chloride, incineration of medical waste is often accompanied by release of ClO_(x), SO_(x), and NO_(x) air pollutants that must be scrubbed from the emitted gases. Alternatives to incineration have met with limited success owing to complexity of design and operation outweighing the value of the potentially usable co-products transformed and recycled from waste streams. Thus, the existing methods of disposing of infectious or contaminated waste do not make it economically feasible to transform and recycle such waste into energy or usable co-products.

Pyrolysis is a general term used to describe the thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. Pyrolysis differs from other high-temperature processes like combustion and hydrolysis in that it usually does not involve oxidative reactions and is often characterized by irreversible simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase.

Pyrolysis is a case of thermolysis, is most commonly used for organic materials, and is one of the processes involved in charring. Charring is a chemical process of incomplete combustion of certain solids when subjected to high heat. The resulting residue matter is called char. By the action of heat, charring reductively removes hydrogen and oxygen from the solid, so that the remaining char is composed primarily of carbon in a zero oxidation state. Polymers such as thermoplastics and thermoset, as well as most solid organic compounds like wood and biological tissue, exhibit charring behavior when subjected to a pyrolysis process, which starts at 200-300° C. (390-570° F.) and goes above 1000° C. or 1800° F., and occurs for example, in fires where solid fuels are burning. In general, pyrolysis of organic substances produces gas and liquid products and leaves a solid residue richer in carbon content, commonly called char. Extreme pyrolysis, which leaves mostly carbon as the residue, is called carbonization. Efficient industrial scale pyrolysis has proven to be difficult to perform due to difficulty in adjusting reactor conditions to feedstock variations in order to achieve a desired degree of carbonization.

To address the global concern over current waste management and processing technologies and methods, many methods have been suggested to meet the flexible needs of waste management and processing. Most of these methods require the use of a waste processing reactor, or heat source, which are designed to operate at relatively high temperature ranges such as 200-980° C. (400 to 1800° F.) and allow for continuous or batch processing.

An essential element of chemical reactors used in waste processing is for a reactor to enhance mixing and reduce variable reactive conditions associated with spatial variation in the waste material being processed. It should be appreciated that these features should be optimized in order to create conditions which maximize heat diffusion, through material convection, in order to reduce the amount of processing time. While those variables are readily controlled in pilot scale systems, precise control of the aforementioned variables at industrial scale processing has proved difficult.

Various reactor feed and waste treatment devices are currently available in the industry. Many devices operate to produce a steady flow of material to a reactor, with varying methods of compaction. However, these conventional devices are not satisfactory in that they are not versatile enough to accommodate, process, and adequately compress heterogeneous waste streams comprising a variety of constituent waste materials.

Currently, many conventional waste treatment devices utilize a compression auger-screw to shred and compact various waste forms for disposal and further processing. However, these devices usually have a fixed compression ratio which cannot account for the various types of waste materials to be processed. As a result, continuous flow of waste material is often interrupted, with various types of waste materials stagnating within these devices. Amplifying the problem, many conventional waste treatment devices lack the ability to separate constituent waste materials from a heterogeneous waste stream to be processed. Additionally, the corrosive attributes of the waste carbonization process lead to damage to drive train and chamber wall, resulting in the need to shut down the system regularly for maintenance.

Thus, there exists a need for a waste transforming rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system which can accommodate various types of waste materials to be processed and provide for the continuous flow-through of heterogeneous waste streams with varying compression ratios. There further exists a need for a process of using a waste transforming rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system that efficiently transforms non-household, medical, and industrial waste into useful co-products in an economically sustainable manner thereby promoting the overall economic value of the process of transforming and recycling waste from a hazard into an asset, while simultaneously reducing the negative impact such waste would otherwise have on human health and the environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system is provided that has a drum rotatable about an axis. A plurality of internal angled vanes are disposed along an inner wall of the drum and are oriented so that waste material inside the drum is moved progressively through the drum from an inlet within a first end of the drum towards a discharge outlet within a second end of the drum. The inventive rotating drum device also has at least one external rotating drum drive motor in fluid communication with the drum. In certain inventive embodiments, the first end of the drum is received by an inlet housing having an inlet housing aperture in fluid communication with the inlet, and the second end of the drum is received by a discharge housing having a discharge housing aperture in fluid communication with the discharge outlet; the inventive rotating drum device may also have an augered feed line in fluid communication with the inlet housing aperture and the inlet, a center feed line in fluid communication with the augered feed line, a plurality of control valves integral with the discharge housing, and a heating jacket encapsulating a circumference of an outer wall of the drum that provides indirect heating to the drum. In other inventive embodiments, the inventive rotating drum device is rotatable about a horizontal axis and has a plurality of external threads disposed along a circumference of the outer wall of the drum that are adapted to engage the at least one external rotating drum drive motor in order to drive rotation of the drum. A process of feeding waste material into and progressively through the inventive rotating drum device is also provided and includes the steps of introducing waste material into the center feed line in fluid communication with the augered feed line in fluid communication with the inlet within the first end of the drum and the inlet housing aperture within the inlet housing adapted to receive the first end of the drum; moving waste material through the center feed line and the augered feed line into the drum; progressing waste material through the drum from the first end towards the second end with the plurality of internal angled vanes disposed along the circumference of the inner wall of the drum; indirectly heating the waste material within the drum with the heating jacket encapsulating the circumference of the outer wall of the drum; rotating the drum about a horizontal axis with the plurality of external threads disposed along the circumference of the outer wall that engage the at least one external drum drive motor; controlling the amount of waste material moving through the drum by controlling at least one of: the rate of rotation of the drum, the speed of the augered feed line, the volume of waste dispersed into the drum, the volume of waste discharged from the drum, or a combination thereof; thermally treating the waste material; separating the waste material with a magnetic strip circumferentially disposed along the circumference of the inner wall of the drum; and discharging the thermally treated waste material through the discharge outlet within the second end of the drum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a rotating drum device in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a system of use of a rotating drum device as described in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An inventive rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system is provided with a process for feeding waste material into and progressively through the inventive rotating drum device. The present invention has utility to support a variety waste stream transformation and recycling processes including anaerobic thermal transformation processing to convert waste streams into bio-gas; bio-oil; carbonized materials; non-organic ash; and varied further co-products. The present invention also has utility to control the amount of waste material being introduced into the inventive rotating drum device to ensure a uniform flow-through of waste material and to guard against clogging or other malfunction. The present invention has additional utility to separate constituent waste materials from a heterogeneous waste stream. Through resort to an inventive rotating drum device having internal angled vanes that move waste materials progressively through the drum which is indirectly heated by a heating jacket and which is rotated by an external rotating drum drive motor that engages external threads disposed along an outer wall of the drum, a novel carbonizer chamber is provided that has robust operation and ease of maintenance. The present invention represents an alternative to the drag chain reactor detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,801,904 B2.

It is to be understood that in instances where a range of values are provided that the range is intended to encompass not only the end point values of the range but also intermediate values of the range as explicitly being included within the range and varying by the last significant figure in the range. By way of example, a recited range from 1 to 4 is intended to include 1-2, 1-3, 2-4, 3-4, and 1-4.

Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the rotating drum device shown generally at 10 for use with a carbonizer system. The drum 12 is rotatable around a generally horizontal axis 13 and has an inner wall 14 and an outer wall 16. The axis 13 is appreciated to be subject to dynamic modification through changing the vertical displacement of one end of the drum 12 relative to the other to afford additional control over material dwell time in the drum 12. Displacement is accomplished through conventional equipment such as a wedge, screw jack, hydraulic lifts, and combinations thereof. Internal angled vanes 18 are disposed along the inner wall 14 of the drum 12. The internal angled vanes 18 are oriented to facilitate movement of waste material progressively through the drum 12 from an inlet 20 located within a first end 22 of the drum 12 towards a discharge outlet 24 located within a second end 26 of the drum 12, the second end 26 being distal to the first end 22. Rotation of the drum 12 is driven by at least one external rotating drum drive motor 28 which engages external threads 40 disposed along the outer wall 16 of the drum 12. An inlet housing 30 receives the first end 22 of the drum 12 and has an inlet housing aperture 32 in fluid communication with the inlet 20. A discharge housing 34 receives the second end 26 of the drum 12 and has a discharge housing aperture 36 in fluid communication with the discharge outlet 24. A heating jacket 38 encapsulates the outer wall 16 of the drum 12. It is appreciated that the heating jacket 38 provides indirect heating to waste material within the drum 12. It is further appreciated that the heating jacket 38 may provide for the anaerobic thermal treatment and transformation processing of waste material within the drum 12 into useful co-products that can be reintroduced into the stream of commerce at various economically advantageous points. A condenser (not depicted) is present in some inventive embodiments, to fractionate gaseous co-products into useable materials.

A center feedline 44 accepts waste material to be introduced into the drum 12 and is in fluid communication with an augered feedline 42. The augered feedline 42 is in fluid communication with the inlet housing aperture 32 and the inlet 20 allowing for the introduction of waste material from the center feedline 44 through the augered feedline 42 and into the drum 12. It is appreciated that the augered feedline 42 may be oriented on an incline relative to the drum 12. It is further appreciated that the augered feedline 42 may be oriented at an angle of between 0 degrees and 180 degrees relative to the outer face of the first end 22 of the drum 12. In some inventive embodiments, the augered feedline 42 is oriented at an angle of between 0 degrees and 90 degrees relative to the outer face of the first end 22 of the drum 12. In still other embodiments, the augered feedline 42 may be oriented at an angle of between 45 degrees and 90 degrees relative to the outer face of the first end 22 of the drum 12. Control valves 46 integral with the discharge housing 34 are provided. It is appreciated that the control valves 46 may function to adjust a variety of operating parameters of the rotating drum device 10 including, but not limited to, the rate of rotation of the drum 12, the temperature of the heating jacket 38, speed of the augered feedline 42, quantity of waste material being introduced into the drum 12 at any discrete point in time, and quantity of waste material being discharged out of the drum 12 at any discrete point in time. A magnetic strip 48 is present in some inventive embodiments and in still others, circumferentially disposed along the inner wall 14 of the drum 12. It is appreciated that the magnetic strip 48 separates ferrous constituent waste materials from a heterogeneous waste stream within the drum 12.

The corrosive nature of some waste streams processed in an inventive rotating drum device 10 can attack various components of an inventive rotating drum device, such as when, by way of non-limiting example, mineral acids are generated through waste processing. In such instances, components exposed to acids are formed of corrosion resistant steels such as those rich in nickel and molybdenum illustratively including HASTALLOY® C-276.

It is also appreciated that the atmosphere inside of the drum 12 illustratively includes ambient air, nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, inert gas, or a combination thereof. It is further appreciated that limiting the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere inside of the drum 12 allows for anaerobic thermal transformation processing of waste materials into useful co-products.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a system of use of a rotating drum device 10 as shown in FIG.1 according to an embodiment of the invention. Where appropriate, aspects of the system of use are shown as dotted lines to expose inner components of the rotating drum device 10. Waste material is introduced 102 into a center feedline 44 in fluid communication with an augered feedline 42 in fluid communication with an inlet housing aperture 32 within an inlet housing 30 adapted to receive a first end 22 of the drum 12. It is appreciated that the augered feedline 42 is also in fluid communication with an inlet 20 within the first end 22 of the drum 12. Waste material is moved 104 through the center feedline 44 and augered feedline 42 into the drum 12. Internal angled vanes 18 disposed along the inner wall 14 of the drum 12 allow the waste material to be moved progressively 106 through the drum 12 from the first end 22 of the drum 12 towards a second end 26 of the drum 12, the second end 26 being distal to the first end 22. Waste material moving through the drum 12 is indirectly heated 108 with a heating jacket 38 encapsulating an outer wall 16 of the drum 12. It is appreciated that the indirect heating 108 in some inventive embodiments effectuates thermal treatment of the waste material. The drum 12 is rotated 110 about a horizontal axis 13 by at least one external rotating drum drive motor 28 that engages external threads 40 disposed along the outer wall 16 of the drum. The amount of waste material being introduced into and moving through the drum 12 may be controlled 112 by control valves 46 integral with a discharge housing 34 adapted to receive the second end 26 of the drum 12. It is appreciated that the discharge housing 34 has a discharge housing aperture 36 in fluid communication with a discharge outlet 24 within the second end 26 of the drum 12. It is further appreciated that controlling 112 the amount of waste material being introduced into and moving through the drum 12 may be accomplished by controlling at least one of the following non-limiting operational parameters: the rate of rotation of the drum 12, the speed of the augered feedline 42, the volume of waste being dispersed into the drum 12 at any given discrete point in time, the volume of waste being discharged out of the drum 12 at any given discrete point in time, or a combination thereof. In some inventive embodiments, constituent waste materials are separated 114 from a heterogeneous waste stream within the drum 12 using a magnetic strip 48 disposed along the inner wall 14 of the drum 12. Waste material that has been indirectly heated and thermally treated inside of the drum 12 is then discharged 116 out of the drum 12 through the discharge outlet 24. It is appreciated that the waste material within the drum 12 is some embodiments is medical waste. Through control of reaction conditions, the waste material is transformed into gaseous products under reaction conditions along with a carbonized material that is a carbon black like material. The gaseous and carbonized products being sterile in that all pathogens and biohazards present in the waste material have been rendered harmless. The sterile gaseous and carbonized products are either themselves useful co-products, or they can be further processed into useful co-products that can be reintroduced into the stream of commerce at various economically advantageous points.

As a person skilled in the art will recognize from the previous detailed description and from the figures and claims, modifications and changes can be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope of this invention defined in the following claims. 

1. A rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system comprising: a drum rotatable about an axis, said drum having an inner wall and an outer wall; a plurality of internal angled vanes disposed along the inner wall of said drum, said plurality of internal angled vanes oriented so that waste material is moved progressively through said drum from an inlet within a first end of said drum towards a discharge outlet within a second end of said drum, said second end distal to said first end; and at least one external rotating drum drive motor in fluid communication with said drum.
 2. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising an inlet housing adapted to receive said first end of said drum, said inlet housing having an inlet housing aperture in fluid communication with said inlet.
 3. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a discharge housing adapted to receive said second end of said drum, said discharge housing having a discharge housing aperture in fluid communication with said discharge outlet.
 4. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a heating jacket encapsulating a circumference of said outer wall of the drum, said heating jacket providing indirect heating to the drum.
 5. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of external threads disposed along the circumference of said outer wall, said plurality of external threads adapted to engage said at least one external rotating drum drive motor and drive rotation of said drum.
 6. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising an augered feed line in fluid communication with said inlet housing aperture and said inlet.
 7. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a center feed line in fluid communication with said augered feed line.
 8. The rotating drum device of claim 6 wherein said augered feed line is oriented on an incline.
 9. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of control valves integral with said discharge housing.
 10. The rotating drum device of claim 1 further comprising a magnetic strip disposed along said inner wall of the drum, said magnetic strip adapted to separate constituent waste materials from a heterogeneous waste stream.
 11. The rotating drum device of claim 1 wherein the atmosphere inside said drum is at least one of: ambient air, nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, inert gas, or a combination thereof.
 12. A rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system comprising: a drum rotatable about an axis, said drum having an inner wall, an outer wall, a first end, and a second end distal to said first end; an inlet housing adapted to receive said first end of the drum, said inlet housing having an inlet housing aperture in fluid communication with an inlet within said first end of the drum; a discharge housing adapted to receive said second end of the drum, said discharge housing having a discharge housing aperture in fluid communication with a discharge outlet within said second end of the drum; an augered feed line in fluid communication with said inlet housing aperture and said inlet; a center feed line in fluid communication with said augered feed line; a plurality of control valves integral with said discharge housing; a heating jacket encapsulating a circumference said outer wall of the drum, said heating jacket providing indirect heating to the drum; and at least one external rotating drum drive motor in fluid communication with said drum.
 13. The rotating drum device of claim 12 further comprising a plurality of internal angled vanes disposed along a circumference of the inner wall of said drum, said plurality of internal angled vanes oriented so that waste material is moved progressively through the drum from said first end towards said discharge outlet within said second end.
 14. The rotating drum device of claim 12 or claim 13 further comprising a plurality of external threads disposed along the circumference said outer wall of the drum, said plurality of external threads adapted to engage said at least one external rotating drum drive motor and drive rotation of the drum.
 15. A rotating drum device for use with a carbonizer system comprising: a drum rotatable about a horizontal axis, said drum having an inner wall, an outer wall, a first end, and a second end distal to said first end; an inlet housing adapted to receive said first end of the drum, said inlet housing having an inlet housing aperture in fluid communication with an inlet within said first end of the drum; a discharge housing adapted to receive said second end of the drum, said discharge housing having a discharge housing aperture in fluid communication with a discharge outlet within said second end of the drum; an augered feed line in fluid communication with said inlet housing aperture and said inlet; a center feed line in fluid communication with said augered feed line; a plurality of control valves integral with said discharge housing; at least one external rotating drum drive motor in fluid communication with said drum; and a plurality of external threads disposed along a circumference of said outer wall of the drum, said plurality of external threads adapted to engage said at least one external rotating drum drive motor and drive rotation of the drum.
 16. The rotating drum device of claim 15 further comprising a heating jacket encapsulating the circumference of said outer wall of the drum, said heating jacket providing indirect heating to the drum.
 17. The rotating drum device of claim 15 further comprising a plurality of internal angled vanes disposed along a circumference of the inner wall of said drum, said plurality of internal angled vanes oriented so that waste material is moved progressively through the drum from said first end towards said discharge outlet within said second end. 18-20. (canceled) 